How to Install WordPress: The Complete Step by Step Guide for 2019

How to Install WordPress: The Complete WordPress Installation Guide

WordPress, WordPress, WordPress. Lately, you have heard this term thrown around a lot. You’ve been hearing great things about WordPress, the most popular of content management systems (CMSs). Now you’re curious. You want to dive in.

You’re ready to take full advantage of the WordPress platform to power your website. But there’s a problem. You don’t know what to do or where to start as far as installing WordPress goes.

Well, rest your worries. In today’s serving, you’ll learn everything you need to install WordPress on your web server or locally on your PC. We will show you how to install WordPress using one-click installers, and then do it manually just to have some fun. By the end of this tutorial, you’ll be a WordPress installation ninja, so you can concentrate on your work. In other words, you’ll learn:

Which role do you get to play in all this? Of course, you just have to try out this tutorial or share your thoughts and experiences in the comments. Deal? Great, let’s take it to the stars.

How to Install WordPress using One-Click Installers

Script installers such as Softaculous, Fantastico, and Mojo Marketplace among others make installing WordPress super duper easy. All you have to do is click a button here, a button there and your work is done. In this tutorial, we are covering the three script installers we just mentioned. Let’s begin with my personal fav.

How to Install WordPress using Mojo Marketplace

Formerly known as Simple Scripts, Mojo Marketplace makes installing WordPress “…so easy, a four year old can…” hack it. You don’t need previous experience, or special training; just the ability to hit that mouse button.

Mojo Marketplace powers WordPress quick install for a couple of web hosts including, but not limited to, Bluehost, Hostgator, Fatcow, and Host Monster. All you have to do is login to your control panel e.g. cPanel, and find the Mojo Marketplace tab. Then hit the One-Click Installs icon. This should redirect you to Mojo Marketplace:

Under the Blogs & Website Builders tab, you should spot WordPress easily. Click on the WordPress icon to launch the installation page. Here, you have two options. You can either install a new WordPress site or import an older installation. Hit the Install button to set up a new site and on the next page, select to which domain you would like to install WordPress.

Click the Check Domain button. Mojo Marketplace will check your domain and direct you to the last step:

how-to-install-wordpress-mojo-marketplace-wordpress-install-last-step

Select the Show advanced options checkbox to input your site name, username and password. Create strong login information, and agree to the terms and conditions of the GPLv2. Hit the Install Now button. Take your time, grab a coffee or a drink – whatever floats your boat; they’ll notify you once your installation is ready to ship:

how-to-install-wordpress-mojo-marketplace-complete-installation

Click the View Credentials button to launch the Notification Center where you get your URL, admin URL, username and password. Now load your new WordPress site in your browser. By default, Mojo Marketplace installs a coming soon page for your site. How nifty?

Load your WordPress admin panel using the admin URL and your login information:

how-to-install-wordpress-admin-panel

Install a WordPress theme and all the plugins you need. You can start with an SEO plugin such as Yoast SEO, Google Analytics to track traffic, and iThemes Security plugin to keep the bad guys. Link Jetpack to WordPress to supercharge your site, and activate Akismet to catch spam.

Alternatively, you can install Goodbye Captcha to stop spam bots long before they post junk to your new site. You can get premium WordPress themes at My Theme Shop, FancyThemes, ElegantThemes or Themeforest. There are great and free WordPress themes at WordPress as well so feel free to browse the collection as well. You can score a wide range of premium WordPress plugins at CodeCanyon, so don’t feel limited to the free plugins at WordPress.

Well, was that difficult? Now build your site by adding awesome content and rock the world.

How to Install WordPress using Softaculous

We will keep this section to the point, since Sourav Kundu already brought us a great tutorial on installing WordPress using Softaculous. So, what features qualify Softaculous for this post? Well, for starters it’s easy to use, and supported by a number of web hosts among other things. Here’s to keeping this section to the point:

  • Launch Softaculous from your control panel
  • Find WordPress and select Install
  • Set up your settings e.g. domain, database name, WordPress directory etc
  • Add database and site settings
  • Configure admin account
  • Choose your language
  • Select plugins
  • Configure advanced options i.e. Notifications and automatic updates
  • Enjoy your brand new WordPress site

Check out how to install WordPress using Softaculous for a detailed procedure. You’ll have fun I promise. Moving on…

How to Install WordPress using Fantastico

Fantastico is – wait for it – fantastic! Ok, that’s a lame joke forgive me. All the same, Fantastico makes installing WordPress incredibly easy. Easy you say? That’s right, you can install a new WordPress site in five simple steps. Five fantastically simple steps.

Firstly, login to your control panel and locate the Fantastico (or Fantastico Deluxe) icon:

how-to-install-wordpress-fantastico-deluxe-icon

Image via Siteground

Click on the icon to launch the Fantastico dashboard. On the left hand menu, you should see WordPress under Blogs. Choose WordPress and click the New Installation link in the WordPress information screen that appears:

how-to-install-wordpress-fantastico-new-installation

Image via Siteground

The next step involves entering various details such as your domain, username, password, site title etc. Then just click the Install WordPress button, which should lead you to a confirmation page. Hit the Finish Installation button to complete the installation. Five. Simple. Steps. Enjoy your new WordPress site, and promote it actively when you finally launch.

You might also like: How Good is Siteground for Hosting WordPress Websites? [Review]

How to Install WordPress Manually

We keep this section brief as well because – Sourav Kundu. He has this area well covered in how to install WordPress manually on any web host. The process is fairly easy you should build WordPress sites one after the other. Goes something like this:

  • Download  WordPress from WordPress.org
  • Login to cPanel and create a WordPress database using MySQL Databases icon found under the databases tab.
  • Create and add at least one user to the database (You’ll need this info when creating wp-config.php)
  • Upload WordPress to your public_html or root folder using FTP or File Manager
  • Extract the WordPress.zip archive directly into your  public_html. Your WordPress files should live in the public_html aka root folder and not the extracted WordPress folder. Otherwise, you’ll have to type yourdomain.com/wordpress/ to load your WordPress site, which just isn’t cool. So move all files from the extracted WordPress directory to the public_html/root folder. Alternatively, you can skip moving the files, just make sure your domain points to the extracted WordPress folder
  • Now navigate to your site’s URL to launch the installation process
  • You’ll be prompted to create a wp-config.php file
  • Follow the prompt, fill in your database info i.e. database name, username, password and database host (localhost by default), and hit the Submit button
  • Click Run the Install to trigger the installation
  • Enter information about your site in the next page and click the Install WordPress button
  • Still stuck? Check out how to install WordPress manually on any web host
  • Most importantly, have fun!

How to Install WordPress on your Computer

We’ve learned how to install WordPress on your web server. What if you need to create a local development environment where you can build WordPress sites, themes and plugins for clients or personal use? This next section is dedicated to show you exactly how to install WordPress on your Windows PC or Mac. Let’s begin with Windows.

How to Install WordPress on Windows with WAMP

For this sub-section, you’ll need a fresh copy of WordPress and a nifty piece of software known as WAMP, which is just an acronym for Windows Apache MySQL PHP (or Perl or Python). WAMP enables you to create a local server environment that provides all the resources WordPress needs to operate.

Install WAMP

Installing WAMP on your Windows computer is pretty much straightforward. All you have to do is double-click the setup package and follow the prompts until you see Finish.

Don’t change any default settings i.e. installation directory, SMTP and Email. Additionally, add a firewall exception for your Apache HTTP server. This you’ll be prompted automatically so don’t worry about it. Launch WampServer when the installation complete.

You want to make sure your server is up and running before rushing to install WordPress. This is easy as well. Look for the WAMP icon in your taskbar. It’s usually an uppercase W. How do you know whether your WampServer is running?

If the icon is red, the server is not running and you’ll need to restart the server or your PC. If the icon is orange, the MySQL service is offline or booting. Wait for a minute and if the icon doesn’t turn green, restart the server. If the icon is green, you’re good to go, and should see the following page when you enter 127.0.0.1 or localhost in your address bar:

how-to-install-wamp-welcome-page

Moving on, WordPress needs a MySQL database to run. This is where information about your WordPress installation is stored.

Create a Database

I’m not about to say creating a database for your WordPress installation is easy because I’ve done it many times before. It’s just really easy to create a database anybody can do it. How?

  • Click on the WAMP icon and choose phpMyAdmin. This will launch a new tab called phpMyAdmin. Click on the Databases tab.
  • In the Create database field, enter your desired database name and hit the create button. If successful, close phpMyAdmin, and let us install WordPress.

Install WordPress

This is where all the fun is. Extract your WordPress ZIP archive to c:WAMPwww. Inside c:WAMPwww, you should find a new WordPress folder. Your WordPress platform will be accessible via http://localhost/wordpress in your browser.

Installing WordPress from this point is a matter of creating a configuration (wp-config.php) file and entering the relevant details. Open http://localhost/wordpress in your default browser and click on the Create a Configuration File button. Click Let’s Go on the next page.

On the next screen, fill in the required details i.e. database name, username, password, database host and table prefix. Use root as your username and leave the password field blank. Database host is localhost by default, so don’t change it. Hit the Submit button. If you get the following message, your database connection was successful:

how-to-install-wordpress-successful-database-connection

If you get an error establishing database connection message, check where you went wrong and make amendments. Hit the Run this Install button, and enter your site details on the next page. With the info in place, click on the Install WordPress button, and that’s it! Login to your local WordPress installation by navigating to http://localhost/wordpress/wp-admin and enjoy!

Installing WordPress on Mac Locally using MAMP

Just like installing WordPress on Windows, it’s simple to install WordPress on your Mac. The process is easy as installing MAMP – the Mac equivalent of WAMP – and following it up with WordPress.

Install MAMP

As you can probably guess, MAMP is short for Mac OS X, Apache the server,  MySQL the database management tool and PHP (Perl or Python) the programming language.

Download MAMP from their website (it’s open source) and install the program by dragging it to your application folder. When MAMP is installed, you need to adjust the default settings. It’s easy peasy work.

  • Open MAMP
  • Hit the Preferences button to launch a second screen
  • Click on the Ports tab and set 80 and 3306 for your Apache and MySQL ports in that order
  • Set PHP to the latest version via the PHP tab

Create a WordPress Database

Of course, we will need a database to get your WordPress installation up and running. Don’t sweat one bit though, creating databases is easy. Here’s the juice:

  • Start MAMP
  • Click on the Start Servers button
  • Click on phpMyAdmin on the welcome screen that opens
  • On the next page, hit the database tab and under the Create database field, enter your desired database name
  • Click on the Create button

Your database is now ready for your WordPress installation.

Install WordPress

Always get your fresh WordPress package from WordPress.org. Once downloaded, extract the folder, open it and drag the contents into Applications/MAMP/htdocs. Rename the wp-config-sample.php file to wp-config.php and open it. Scroll down until you see the following lines:


//** MySQL settings - You can get this info from your web host **//
/** The name of the database for WordPress */
define('DB_NAME','database_name_here');
/** MySQL database username */
define('DB_USER','username_here');
/** MySQL database password */
define('DB_PASSWORD','password_here');
/**MySQL hostname */
define('DB_HOST','localhost');

Update the wp-config.php with your database info as follows:

  • Enter your database name where you have ‘database_name_here’
  • Replace “username_here” and “password_here” with root
  • Don’t touch ‘DB_HOST’, leave it as is unless you know what you’re doing
  • Save changes

Enter http://localhost in your browser, and you should see the famous five-minute WordPress installation screen. Input your site details and hit the install WordPress button. Enjoy your brand new WordPress installation.

Having fun? Good, let’s move on and install a WordPress multisite network so you can easily run multiple sites on a single instance of WordPress.

How to Install a WordPress Multisite Network

Looking to create a network of WordPress sites? If so, here’s a great sub-section just for you. With a network of sites, you can test themes and plugins in a multisite environment, or get multiple sites running at once. You can do so many other things with a WordPress multisite network, so yeah feel free to experiment.

Activate WordPress Multisite

First, install WordPress using any of the methods we just learned. Open your wp-config.php file and add the following piece of code just before the last line:


define ('WP_ALLOW_MULTISITE', true);

Save your wp-config.php and refresh your WordPress site. Your site should now support multisite network. This move will add a new menu item “Network Setup” to your admin menu under Tools.

Setting Up Your Network

Now that we’ve activated the multisite feature, let’s set up your network. First, deactivate all plugins – you can always  reactivate them later on when the network is ready.

Navigate to Tools -> Network Setup on your WordPress admin menu. This should open the Create a Network of WordPress Sites screen.

Note 1: If you’re using a local WordPress installation, you can only install individual sites in subdirectories. If you’re using an online WordPress install, you can choose to install individual sites on either subdomains or subdirectories.

Note 2: If you choose to install sites on subdomains, you’ll need to set up a wildcard DNS record with your web host. Don’t worry, it’s simple. Just navigate to your control panel and create a *.yourdomain.com subdomain. The procedure is usually straightforward:

  • Login to your control panel
  • Go to the Domains section
  • Click on Subdomains
  • Enter asterisk (*) in the subdomain field
  • Hit the create button and Viola! – new wildcard subdomain created

Set up your permalinks to Post name, provide a title and admin email for your network. Click the Install button to continue. On the next page, your network will offer some rules you have to add to your .htaccess and wp-config.php files. Update both files accordingly. Annnd that’s it!

You can configure your network by navigating to My Sites -> Network Admin. That was easy, wasn’t it?

How to Install WordPress in Your Language

By default, WordPress displays in US English. The platform is, however, versatile and can accommodate languages from across the globe. A special team of WordPress contributors do a great job of translating the platform for you and me.

That said, localizing WordPress is just a matter of installing the language files and updating your wp-config.php file. Alternatively, you can navigate to Settings -> General and scroll down to the bottom of the page. Localizing WordPress won’t happen though if your language isn’t fully translated. Now, let’s add your language files manually for the love of learning.

Open your wp-content directory and create a new folder called languages. This is where you will upload the .mo and .po language files. But where do you get the language files? Just go to this Translate WordPress page on Make.WordPress.org, and click the “Details” link next to your language. Download your language pack on the next page.

Note that you can only download language packs that have a GlotPress score of 100%. Now go ahead, download the language pack, extract the archive and upload all the .mo and .po files to /wp-content/languages/.

Open your wp-config.php file and add the following line:


define('WPLANG','fr_FR');

Of course you need to replace fr_FR with your language and country code. For instance, if you want to use the Portuguese spoken in Brazil, you would use pt_BR. You can see your WordPress locale codes under the WP Locale column on the Translate WordPress page. Save your wp-config.php file and have fun!

Bonus: WordPress Hosting Recommendation

If you’ll install on a web server, you must have a web host who offers all the features WordPress needs. You’re in luck though as the CMS has minimal system requirements. All you need is the latest version of Apache, MySQL and some disk space, which are easy to get with most web hosts. That said, here are some recommended web hosts that support WordPress comfortably.

Bluehost

I have been with three web hosts ever since I started working online, but I have stuck with Bluehost the longest. With over millions of customers, Bluehost is a choice web host for many an online entrepreneurs looking for great features at throwaway prices. With shared hosting plans starting at just $3.49 a month, you will hardly get a better deal elsewhere.

Although they might need to improve their customer care department, they offer you all the features you need to get your WordPress website up and running in no time. Setting up an account is straightforward, and since they provide WordPress quick installs via Mojo Marketplace, all you have to do is click a few buttons to create a fully fledged WordPress site.

On top of shared hosting, they offer affordable VPS (starting at $14.99/month), dedicated (starting at $74.99/month) and optimized WordPress hosting (starting at $12.49/month) plans. Choose a package that will suit your business needs.

Learn more about Bluehost. (BlueHost Coupon: 35% off)

SiteGround

Tom Ewer wrote a thrilling SiteGround review, so I won’t go into the details. All in all, SiteGround wins all departments be it support, features or pricing. Their service is really top notch they are featured on WordPress.org’s list of recommended WordPress hosts. You will never go wrong with SiteGround provided you choose the right hosting plan for your business.

Speaking of hosting plans, SiteGround offers you three well-rounded hosting packages namely: The Startup plan starting at $3.95/month, the GrowBig plan at $7.95 and the $14.95 a month GoGeek plan. Each package comes with its unique set of features, so be sure to check which suits your needs accordingly.

Here’s what Bob Bales, one of our esteemed reader and commenter, had to say about the SiteGround experience:

I switched to SiteGround about 6 months ago after being with one of the “blogger recommended” hosts. I have been really happy and whenever I need to get in touch with Customer Service, which so far has been for questions not problems, they are very helpful. I recently added another domain and upgraded to the Grow Big package. They were very helpful in getting everything transferred over and set up.

Learn more about SiteGround. (SiteGround Coupon: 60% off)

WPEngine

Here’s a managed WordPress hosting for your pleasure. Unlike typical web hosting companies, managed WordPress hosts specialize in the WordPress platform and nothing else. This means you cannot host any regular website, just WordPress websites. All the same, managed WordPress hosts give you a lot of power and expertise to take your WordPress site to the next level.

WPEngine is a well known and revered managed WordPress hosting that’s great for WordPress sites of any size – big or small. With the smallest package starting at just $29/month, you are sure to get special hosting for your website without breaking the bank.

Available features include CDN to accelerate your media, page cache for better site speeds, secure daily backups, top of the drawer security so you can rest easy at night, and expert support among others. You can read more about the features that make WPEngine a darling of many in this detailed review by Sourav Kundu.

Learn more about WPEngine (WPEngine Coupon: 33% off)

End Note

Installing WordPress is piece of cake. You can do it manually as easily as the next guy. And thanks to the influx of auto-installers, you don’t need to break a sweat to install WordPress sites. Have you installed WordPress before? How did you hack it and how was your experience?

Have questions? Suggestions? Come to the comment section and wow us with your contribution. Adios!

Keep reading the article at WPKube. The article was originally written by Freddy Muriuki on 2020-09-10 08:00:10.

The article was hand-picked and curated for you by the Editorial Team of WP Archives.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are "affiliate links." This means if you click on the link and purchase the product, We may receive an affiliate commission.

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